MUST WE REALLY HATE & MEDIA SCORN IMELDA?
By Paulino Jose Misa
May 28, 2022
MUST WE REALLY HATE & MEDIA SCORN IMELDA?
Well perhaps. At least according to the knee-jerk reaction that has been relentlessly programmed into every Filipino's mind for so many decades.
But you know, after hearing something about Imelda the other day, I suddenly realized yesterday that although Imelda was just the First Lady, and as derided as she has been, she probably instigated and built more LASTING INSTITUTIONS and infrastructure than many of the actual PRESIDENTS who followed Marcos until Duterte!
Whatever money she spent on her projects, and has been spent on them since, regardless of any insinuations, has provided countless benefits to the FILIPINOS which even her detractors avail regularly of to this day.
So is this not sa tremendous, unparalled achievement by "only" a First Lady that she should be recognized for and respected in her old age at least?
Certainly, it could be said that she was extravagant to the extreme but it also seems like that is also about the only proven thing she has been accused of.
She (and FM) at least had the vision as well as the lasting results that NO ONE at the time had, and what her detractors up to this day, have proven themselves to be SADLY LACKING.
I can't even think of anything iconic like the Cultural Center or the BLISS housing that anyone sfter, especially her haters, did.
BTW, did she ever have anyone killed or jailed or the law changed to favor her personal caprices? You know, like what happened to Robin and how the law on baby's surnames was changed to make Josh an Aquino rather than a Salvador?
As far as I'm concerned, the Marcoses had a job that they tried to do in the best imperfect way they knew how to, under the particular circumstances and prevailing mentality of the time. Proof is that those who followed them actually may have done even worse on the bad side while having such forgettable results on whatever good side they could muster with not much more than a lot of hot air to show.
It seems that if we could somehow get back the stride we had in the earlier Marcos years then it would not really take that long to move forward faster.
The problem is that regardless of who is in power, we always seem to get bogged down by our "kakilala" and "padrino" mentality which has simply led to entrnched corruption rather than results.
On the other hand, this Filipino "kakilala" culture is not necessarily bad but rather a double-edged sword.
If all the "kakilalas" really could, in general, get the job done, as Duterte seems to have managed to do, then it would be an immeasurable boon for the whole country.
On the other hand if things suddenly reverted to the "let the good times roll" mentality that was especially in Abnoy's time then we will be in deep soon enough.
Considering that we are all riding the same boat and seem to be rather more aware than we used to be, I am just betting and hoping for the first possibility.
In the meantime can people stop endlessly repeating what everyone has already heard incessantly for decades. Considering the results of the past elections, it seems like people are already tired of listening. Side B naman.
